Nice to meet everyone! Some of you may know me from PSO-world under the same name. This is a topic I've been meaning to open up on this forum for quite a white now, but I just haven't had the time to get around to signing up until now. Phantasy Star Prime is a project that I've wanted to introduce you all to for a long time though, so I couldn't pass up the greatest den of some of the most loyal fans of the classic series that the 'net has to offer!

So, what is Phantasy Star Prime?

Wow... Where to begin?! I guess I can start by saying that Phantasy Star Prime is a large-scale movie project that has been evolving over the last year or so. It began a little over a year ago as a mere seed of an idea for a cool-looking fight video for YouTube with Phantasy Star Universe-themed weapons. Nothing too impressive, but something akin to the Ryan vs Dorkman videos. As time went on however, a story began to take shape in my mind which I promptly began to put on paper. It wasn't long before a full script for a 45+ minute fan film was finished. Upon its completion, I began to search for a cast and crew to help me bring this vision to life. I've made a lot of friends in my search and networking has been our best friend (we even got the popular anime voice actor Kyle Hebert to play a role as one of our main androids for the film)! Me and the four other most dedicated members of our group became the founding fathers of Done Right Productions, a name that we gave ourselves as a representation of our lofty goal to end the trend of bad video-game movies and other theatrical disasters, such as anything that was ever created by Uwe Boll. In short, we go out of our way to do our homework and get every detail right before we begin actual production, and we take pride in that aspect of our work. So far, the only things that have made it out the gate so far under our name (because we've been so busy with Prime) are a few comedy shorts (one of which is now owned by Sprint) and a comedy series which is quickly growing in popularity called Ask Gibby.

Anyway, I digress.

Once we began to hire some outside help, such as people to help us construct the weapon and armor props, as well as actors and crew, we ran into a problem. I discovered that, as a writer, I misunderstood a few aspects of Phantasy Star and that it would completely throw the movie out of whack. I had to go back and start from scratch and scrap the old script. As I did my research, I found that the Phantasy Star fanbase is somewhat divided between the classic fans and the modern fans. I knew I wanted to please everyone though, so I began my quest for information on the classic series and I collaborated with some of the most hardcore classic fans that PSO-world had to offer. A few months later, we had a winner. The guy I collaborated with most was also the hardest to please, and I preferred it that way. When I submitted a synopsis of the overall story for the film (actually, by this point it became three films) he absolutely loved it, as did all the other classic fans who worked with us to make sure that we got everything right. I even personally went back and played through Phantasy Star II and III to make sure I was well-immersed into the source material.

The films, which have grown to the point of being three epic, three-hour-long films, take place at the end of Phantasy Star III (Aron's ending). The Alisa III arrives in orbit above the Earth, which kicks off a series of events that triggers one of the most monumental struggles to ever happen in the Milky Way Galaxy! The level of complexity is vast in this three-part saga. I don't think I'm giving too much away by saying that these films begin with Phantasy Star III and end with Phantasy Star II. Phantasy Star Prime is a sort of "other side story" that spins a brand new tale with a brand new party of heroes, as well as a continuation of what happens with Aron and his group, as well as the inhabitants of the Alisa III as a whole. Phantasy Star Prime is mainly geared toward all Phantasy Star fans, but also written to where a general audience can keep up with what's going on as well. Fans of the modern iterations of Phantasy Star will enjoy this film as well. While it revolves around the universe set forth by the classic games, there will be heavy visual elements on Earth (particularly with the weapons and androids) that resonate well with the modern games, the whole while keeping enough distance between the two to keep them from tarnishing one another.

I will admit that the first hour of the first film starts kind of fast, but also is full of character development and full of conversations between characters that explain what's going on to where the fans as well as a general audience will all be on the same page. All the actors who have auditioned so far, as well as the classic fans who were helping us make sure we got everything right had the same thing to say: "There's a lot going on there, but it's good for viewers who are in the mood for a deep, immersing story."

There is so much more I could talk about to catch everyone up with the first year of development, but I don't want too many "tl;dr situations" for this thread, so I'm keeping it as brief as possible. The only other thing I'll add is that two members of Sega of America (Rob Miles and Aaron Webber aka RubyEclipse) have taken the time to watch our first teaser trailer and they both loved it and are itching to see more, so right there we have a sort of unofficial confirmation that we won't have the carpet promptly ripped out from under us after we've poured so much hard work and money into this. Below is the first teaser trailer for Phantasy Star Prime, as well as a few links to other goodies involved with the project.

We're hoping from a lot of feedback from this community as time goes on since this particular demographic is our prime marketing target. Hmm... perhaps "marketing" wasn't exactly a good term since we will be giving away the DVD box set for FREE to whoever wants their own copy once it's released. We aren't crazy enough to try to make money from this. I just had a story that I really wanted to tell and our group is dedicated to seeing it through.

Here is our first teaser trailer. It's cryptic, but as more trailers are released, it will make more sense. The films will focus slightly more on the Earth heroes than the Alisa III, but a brand new adventure will be taking place aboard the Alisa III as well, so it's almost like two movies in one.

Our official Facebook page, which contains photos and other goodies regarding production of Phantasy Star Prime, as well as our other projects.

This is the original thread that begins at the conception of the project to the present. This is a good way to get caught up with how the project has been coming along over the past year, as well as finding media and other goodies along the way. Definitely worth the read if you find yourself particularly interested in this project. You will notice that it got off to a rocky start on the first page of the thread, but quickly turned around. Most of the complaints were regarding unfitting music for a particular video.

This is our YouTube channel, where you can find all of our works. Most of this is just creativity that we wanted to get out the door while we worked on Prime. Ask Gibby however, is entirely unscripted and the actor is improvising it right on the spot. Definitely worth a watch if you don't mind strong language and controversy.

This sounds like a really ambitious project. From what I read here, you people look like you have a lot of drive and motivation. Your success in reaching people from Sega and a famous voice actor is commendable as well.

I hope that you achieve success with what you're doing, I really do.

Also, your trailer is seriously awesome. Good work, I was really impressed by the sound quality.

However, there are two things that jump out of the text for me:

Quote:

We aren't crazy enough to try to make money from this.

Then unless you either have a truckload of very rich uncles OR are yourself made out of money, this project will either never happen or look like something done by kids in their basement. Large projects need resources. Resources come with funding and funding comes either from investors or donations.

Quote:

The films, which have grown to the point of being three epic, three-hour-long films,

To me, this is where your credibility takes a mean dent. Nine hours. Seriously? Companies who hire thousands of people and have millions of dollars worth of budget take years and years to do that. Granted, I'm sure you don't expect to put out the special effects seen in the Matrix or Star Wars movies, but still, it takes a LOT of logistics.

Anyways, prove me wrong and I'll love you forever.

Also: you took a crack at Uwe Boll. Just for that you win.

I suggest you look me (Nekoprism) up on Youtube. I might have music for you.

Haha, perhaps I should rephrase that. We aren't crazy enough to try and make a profit from this project, ergo the flaming chariots of lawyers would rain down upon us. We are completely open to donations and so far we've spent a few thousand dollars on this project already.

About the length of the films, we're really just taking this one step at a time and focusing on obstacles as we approach them. We have MANY workarounds that prevent us from having to spend dump-trucks full of cash to get this project done. While it's true that we are aiming for the highest quality possible, I don't expect it to be Hollywood caliber, but we're going to get it as close as we possibly can. Believe it or not, the special effects are actually the EASIEST part. We will kind of be "cheating" by somewhat abusing the digital aspect a bit in places where we couldn't afford to build large-scale sets or whatnot. We already have some great 3D modeling software as well as particle effects software, and we plan on getting more in the future, but those are things we can buy as we film the first movie since it's all post-production anyway.

I just tried to use the YouTube box feature and it's still filtering out the url of the video. Can anyone help me with this? -_-

If you're referring to your inability to post links, I can't remember by heart but I'd guess you need a certain amount of posts or a number of active days before the board code allows your user to do so. Simple anti-spam protection, Thoul would be the one to give you the exact info.

Good reply to my post. Sounds like a serious project. I wish you all the courage and determination needed. Again, if you are looking for music for your project, contact me.

Yes, the link thing is a measure to prevent new accounts from spamming with advertising links. If you stick around and are active in the community, it will pass on it's own before you know it.

You certainly have some ambitious goals set for this project. I've seen some impressive fan productions, so I believe it's possible with enough dedication and effort. The trailer is pretty good, though to be honest the Phantasy Star part of it felt kind of tacked on. The beginning wasn't tied into that part much, but then that's just a trailer. I'm sure we'll all be watching to see how this project goes.

Thank you for clearing that up for me, Thoul. I was wondering about that. As soon as it clears up, I will be dropping all sorts of multimedia goodies regarding the project for all to enjoy.

Haha, I get that impression a lot from first-time viewers. It definitely doesn't feel like Phantasy Star, does it? All a part of the master plan, I assure you. There will be a series of progressing trailers released before the first installment of Prime is made public. The idea of the first film is to take a semi-modern Earth setting (maybe 50-100 years into the future where not much has changed) and gradually make the transition from a real life, down-to-Earth setting to one of pure phantasy, and on top of it all, having the transition make sense to the viewers in order for their belief to survive the transition. We want to keep the newcomers and fans alike immersed in the idea that this is actually happening in a "real-world" setting.

A brief idea of what's going on here is thus:

The Alisa III has just arrived in orbit above the Earth (about 20 minutes or so into the first film). Traveling through the wormhole has caused extensive damage to their ship. Certain passageways between the domes have been severed, as well as other kinds of damage that I cannot reveal without giving away important elements of the plot. Tensions between the Earth and the Alisa III are high as the citizens of Earth have begun crowding into underground shelters just in case these new visitors were hostile. Imminent extinction looms over the horizon for the inhabitants of the Alisa III. Hunger and famine threaten the people as the nutrients in their soil are almost completely gone, not to mention the near-depletion of their natural resources. Living on a world-ship for over 1,000 years takes its toll. They are faced with a diplomatic dilemma however, as they do not have enough life support left to survive a trip to another inhabitable world.

Hopes are high that the Earth can be shared, however there is a problem. The Earth is suffering from overcrowding as it is. The existing colonies on Luna and Mars are filled to the brim and travel between them is limited. Meanwhile, a new villain emerges to avenge Rulakir's death, as well as the fall of the city of Lashute. During the inevitable diplomatic drama that takes place between the Earth and the Alisa III, Zarkos executes his plan to exact revenge on the one prince who rules over the kingdoms of Landen, Satera, and Dahlia (and this is just the beginning)! Prince Aron also has his own personal conflics to deal with in the midst of all the drama. In fact, I feel really bad for him now that I think back to the script. I can't say what he is going through without giving away too much, but all I can say is that these films focus heavily on character development. I didn't take many creative liberties with the Alisa III characters either in order to preserve them as how the fans know them. Oh, speaking of which, we just recently cast an Asain actor for Wren. His acting and appearance were spot-on!

This is only half the story however, as a single event on Earth triggers an epic adventure that thrusts a small party of Earthlings onto the path of becoming heroes. The adventure begins in a struggle between man and corporation as the world-renownd FiestCorp harbors plans and secrets that not only affect the lives of everyone on Earth, but particularly the personal lives of Neon, Rose, and Ian, the three main protagonists of the Earth, not to mention the friends they will encounter along the way. Everyone has their own story to tell, and without any of these characters, the entire plot would fall apart. Everyone's story plays a part in the big picture in some form or other. The Earth-side heroes also encounter two new alien races throughout the films, which play a role in a plot that is larger than both the Earth and Alisa III combined. These new races are also inhabitants of the Milky Way Galaxy and have a deep history with one-another as well as the Earth.

So, how do these two seemingly-unrelated stories tie into one another? The answer is: The legend of the Great Light. How does the Great Light tie in with a story that happens in another galaxy entirely? All I will say is that there is a clue hidden within Phantasy Star IV. Have fun with that.

Visually, the Earth and the Alisa III will be very different. The Earth endeavors, from an artistic standpoint, will borrow heavily from the modern era of Phantasy Star (except for the environment). Photon weapons, CASTs, even a new mechanic called a Photon Drive, which is like a mix between a Photon Art from PSU and a Limit Break from Final Fantasy, are all here. Seeing as how the classic series is entirely separate from the modern iterations, there are no taboos in implimenting them here. In this story, they are merely the byproduct of human advancement. All this is cutting-edge FiestCorp technology that has yet to be revealed to the public eye (which drives another plot point).

The birth of MotherBrain, where the Dark Force inside Pandora's Box aboard the Noah came from (and the true meaning behind the words that were uttered before you fought it), what happened between Aron's ending in PSIII and PSII leading up to the destruction of Palma, and more questions are answered within this massive trilogy, all the while spinning a tale that is larger than the Algol System itself (yet directly linked)!

Don't worry, I didn't give away too much with this rundown. It's still only the tip of the iceberg believe it or not. This thing is huge! A huge story can in fact be told on a budget and we plan to do just that.

I'm really hoping that this topic will hook the attention of some of the less-frequently visiting members here. I heard that this was one of the PS Classic-dedicated communities with the highest concentration of fans for the genesis titles, and it saddens me to see this place having so little traffic. I also heard that it used to be much more active. I hope that some of your members catch a whiff of this project and the level of effort being put into it so that they may return to the forum. My personal goal with this project, besides telling an epic adaption, is to jolt the classic saga back into the minds of the public. It was truly an epic story, far more epic than that of the modern Phantasy Star iterations, and deserves to be remembered and known to the newer generations. Plus, a live action movie based around the classics? Yes please!

EDIT: I see my ability to post links is finally active. As you can see, I've edited the original post to reflect this. I will also begin to share some multimedia from the project, starting with a couple photos of one of our newest actors, Johnathan Wong. He auditioned for the role of Wren this past weekend and he did rather well. Not only did he do well acting out the role, but he also looks the part! We couldn't pass this guy up. Believe it or not, this guy is actually 38.

Disclaimer: None of the Wren art is ours. It is not concept art for the project, rather, images found in a search being used for visual comparison.

Last edited by CaptainPlanet on Fri Jul 15, '11, 8:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.

gradually make the transition from a real life, down-to-Earth setting to one of pure phantasy, and on top of it all, having the transition make sense to the viewers in order for their belief to survive the transition.

That's a very good plan. I think it's important to make that transition as smooth as possible to keep the viewer hooked. Dropping standard Earth folks into the Phantasy setting would be jarring. Crafting the world as a smooth, seamless introduction from what we know (Earth) to the fantastic (Alisa) is a vital step.

Zarkos is an appropriate sounding name for a Phantasy Star villain. I like that a lot.

Your Wren actor does indeed look like a perfect fit for the part. If his voice and acting match as well as his appearance, he's going to be really good at that role.

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